Age Bracket

Guess who's getting ready to shoot her own workout video at month's end? Estelle Getty, a k a feisty grandma Sophia of Golden Girls and Golden Palace fame. Titled Young at Heart, the homevid will be aimed at the 55-and-older age bracket - and will have decided comic overtones.

It's a way of life. The way you look at things. How you handle situations. Humor also has been important in my life. I have to have humor. I married my husband because of his humor. I had five children before I was 30. Now this is our time. I also have to say my faith has carried me through. My life wouldn't have had enough meaning without my faith. It has been in the forefront. I told my children: "You can go God's way or man's way. No one is ever going to make the right decision 100 percent of the time, but at least for the big ones, try to make the right choice."

Regarding Saturday's letter to the editor "Reflection on punishment" from John J. Neumaier: The statistics Neumaier refers to are meaningless. Without the number of white men within the age bracket he refers to and the number of black men within the same age bracket, percentages are meaningless. Further, to reach any conclusion concerning equal application of the laws of the land (justice), one would also have to know the number of crimes committed by each group, the severity of each crime and the evidence presented in each case.

The use of drugs to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in younger adults more than doubled from 2000 to 2004. Spending on the drugs in the same age bracket -- 20 to 44 -- more than quadrupled, a major prescription management company says. The pills are becoming increasingly popular among women too. Indeed, adult women are now just as likely as men to take them, says the company, Medco Health Solutions. One percent of adults ages 20 to 64 now take the drugs, according to Medco, which administers pharmaceutical benefits for managed-care companies.

A number of Central Floridians won events and a couple set world records at the second annual World Masters Swimming Championships at Brisbane, Australia. Martha Martin of Orlando, competing in the 40-44 age bracket, won four individual events in three different strokes and was a member of the winning 200-meter freestyle relay team that set a world record of 1:48.4.Rosemarie ''Bud'' Seamon of Winter Park, in the 30-35 age bracket, won the 50-meter butterfly and was second in the 100 freestyle and the 100 butterfly.

EVELYN D. SCHULTZ, 83, 200 S. Banana River Blvd., Cocoa Beach, died Wednesday, April 6. Mrs. Schultz worked for the Chicago Board of Education. Born in Chicago, she moved to Central Florida in 1984. A member of Riverside Presbyterian Church, she also swam competitively and was nationally ranked in the top 10 for her age bracket. Survivors: daughter, Stephany Landt, Cocoa Beach, Alice Landt Weicher, Washington; two grandchildren. Beckman-Williamson Funeral Home, Cocoa Beach.

CHESS WHIZ. Jeff Sawrer is a world champion chess player at age 8. ''It feels good,'' he said in a telephone interview from New York where he studies at the Manhattan Chess Club. Jeff won the title of best player in the 10-and- under age category at the recent world chess championships in Puerto Rico. He topped 25 opponents. One of them was his sister, Julia, but she placed first among girls in her age bracket, 10.

I READ newspapers to be informed and entertained.Lake Sentinel columnist Bill Bond I tolerate, but I live in Lake County myself.Sentinel TV writer Greg Dawson can, at times, be interesting, just like TV - sometimes.I honestly tried Sentinel columnist Bob Morris, but now I just ignore him.Of them all, give me Sentinel Heydays columnist Ed Hayes. Perhaps it's because I'm in his age bracket, and for us there are so few columns. He shakes my memories, and I can relate.I look forward to his column and have never been disappointed with the subjects.

Most popular names for men in their early 20s now are reported to be Michael, Jason, Matthew and Brian. For women in that age bracket: Jennifer, Amy, Sarah and Michelle.Philosopher William James said forgetting is as important as remembering. Analyze that.Now on the market in Tokyo, I'm told, are toupees for dachshunds.Observers at the rising water's edge say what they saw - among countless other things floating down the flooding Mississippi last year - were caskets, many caskets.A baby giraffe grows an inch a day.

It's a way of life. The way you look at things. How you handle situations. Humor also has been important in my life. I have to have humor. I married my husband because of his humor. I had five children before I was 30. Now this is our time. I also have to say my faith has carried me through. My life wouldn't have had enough meaning without my faith. It has been in the forefront. I told my children: "You can go God's way or man's way. No one is ever going to make the right decision 100 percent of the time, but at least for the big ones, try to make the right choice."

The Central Florida Rattlers, a 15-and-over girls basketball all-star team, finished three points shy of the title at the Team Florida USA Girls International Shootout at Central Florida Community College. Several players from Lake County, including Leesburg graduate Danielle Harris, Tavares graduate Kayla Lane, Eustis graduate Jardae Robinson and Leesburg's Sharece Taft, helped lead the team to the championship game, which it lost in a rematch of earlier pool play to a squad from Ocala, 53-50.

Regarding Saturday's letter to the editor "Reflection on punishment" from John J. Neumaier: The statistics Neumaier refers to are meaningless. Without the number of white men within the age bracket he refers to and the number of black men within the same age bracket, percentages are meaningless. Further, to reach any conclusion concerning equal application of the laws of the land (justice), one would also have to know the number of crimes committed by each group, the severity of each crime and the evidence presented in each case.

HOLLYWOOD -- Lizzie McGuire, which chronicles the travails of a teenage girl, has become a clear success for the Disney Channel. So why has the show ceased production, with its sets put into storage? Because children's shows are repeated so frequently, the Disney-owned cable network normally caps production of live-action series at 65 episodes. In the case of Lizzie, the channel recognized it had a hit on its hands early and accelerated the pace to complete that order while the program's 15-year-old namesake, Hilary Duff, remained in her early teens.

On Aug. 11, the Lake Sentinel printed an article about my most recent book on ethics, Primer for Living the Good Life. The article identified the book as specifically for youths. I sincerely hope people in that age bracket will read the book because, like all of us, they too need its ethical insights. However, my book is actually meant for people of all ages. The article missed the point when it pretty much limited the reader audience to the teenage bracket. Primer for Living the Good Life is a daybook of ethics and morals about many of the important issues of life if we are to remain a civilized culture.

DELAND - After Bunny Miliner's husband died five years ago, she decided to move to a retirement community where she could relax more and worry less about maintaining her home in Concord, N.H. Miliner, a 77-year-old retired secretary, had already spent the winters in New Smyrna Beach, so she decided to make the big move to a retirement community nearby. Now her permanent home is John Knox Village in Orange City.While she came from out of state, many of her neighbors moved up from South Florida.

The Bethune-Cookman College Women's Advisory Board will host its annual Valentine's Bazaar from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Feb. 14 in the Moore Gymnasium on the college's campus. The event will begin with a bazaar featuring retail items from local businesses, homemade baked goods and crafts. The program includes a luncheon and Fashions of the Century fashion show. A performance by the B-CC Concert Chorale and numerous prizes, such as a round-trip airfare to the Bahamas, will round out the event.

There is much concern among retired citizens about a bill proposed by Sen. Jack Gordon of Miami to require people who are 70 and older to take a road test to renew their driver's licenses.I don't support this approach for several reasons. First, I think all of us vividly remember the fear we felt as young people when we had to climb into that front seat along with a stern examination officer. With the officer watching, we had to follow commands and carry out every step without flaws. Most of us would say we had a great deal of apprehension about this type of testing.

KISSIMMEE - Jan Vincent Jaro studies Jack Nicklaus, but there's a Tiger in the 6-year-old's golf game, too.Jaro was an age-group (6-and-under) winner of a 1999 Florida Junior Masters green jacket, one of 10 awarded Monday at Kissimmee Bay Country Club. Carding 14 over three holes, Jaro nipped runners-up Ian Dailey, 5, of Lake Mary and Derek Rosa, 6, of Titusville by a stroke.``I've never met him [Jack Nicklaus), but I study his tapes because he's good,'' he said.Jaro, a Jacksonville first-grader, nervously eyed the leaderboard until officials confirmed his tournament victory.